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Torah Portion -
LechLecha
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Written by yehuda katz
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LECH LECHA
"And G-d said to Avrom, Depart from your land,your birth place, and from your fathers house.........(12:1)
A famous question can be asked on this verse, as follows: The order of the depature is in reverse order, normally a person first departs from his father's house,birth place and then one's land. However, the verse does it just the opposite. Why? I would like to propose an original answer, Bezrat Hashem. This verse is teaching us a tremendous lesson and insight into G-d's boundless kindness. G-d never requests of a person something that is not within that persons immediate reach. When G-d asked Abraham to leave the safety of his environment,this was trully a test in faith. However, G-d made this request in a progressive manner from least differcult to more differcult as evident from the verse. This was done to show Abraham and us how much consideration G-d has for the feelings of a human being. It was done with kindness, not in a harsh manner.
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Torah Portion -
LechLecha
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Written by Daniel Sandground
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Parashas Lech Lecha – Emitting Holiness
This week we have another action-packed sedra from the book of Bereishis, with Parashas Lech Lecha. Having had the first two of Avraham's ten trials described in last week's sedra, this week we begin, coincidentally enough, with the third of these trials where he is commanded to leave his land and travel to an unknown destination by Hashem. According to the Midrash, this was the first time Hashem had appeared to Avraham with these prophetic commands finally reaching him after many years of loyal service. According to the Ramchal, what we see with Avraham was the beginning of a new era of spirituality in the world whereby twenty generations of failure came to an end with this one incredible individual who, through his recognition of G-d, was able to positively influence others to Avodas Hashem. The original plan of Creation whereby the whole of mankind would have an equal share in fulfilling the Divine mission and accepting the Torah was therefore passed on solely to Avraham and his descendants. Like any heritage which is passed down, we as Jews therefore inherited this mission from our original
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Torah Portion -
LechLecha
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Written by d fine
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The Ramban asks a poignant question at the start of our sedra. Whereas the Torah gives some background info about virtually all other tzadikim, when it comes to Avraham we are simple told ‘HaShem spoke to Avraham saying…’ Where’s the introduction as to who Avraham was? The Sefas Emes used to cite this question often, giving a new answer almost every year. One year he answered using the Zohar, remarking that ‘HaShem called out to everyone. But Avraham was the only one who listened.’ The idea is that HaShem is constantly telling us messages; whether via nature, current events, or personal happenings in our own lives. We just need to make sure that we are on the right (spiritual) wavelength to be able to tune into these messages.
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Torah Portion -
LechLecha
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Written by d fine
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At the start of Lech Lecha, HaShem commands Avraham, in what is his first of ten tests, to leave his family and birthplace to come to Eretz Cena’an. The problem is that at the very end of parshas Noach (11:31) we were already told that Avraham left Uhr Casdim (his hometown) and reached Charan. How does it make sense that HaShem command something that Avraham had already fulfilled? There seem to be three main approaches in the Rishonim here. Rashi writes that the command was not for Avraham to leave his birthplace (he already had done that), but to distance himself further from his birthplace. The Ibn Ezra differs and writes that HaShem commanded this to Avraham before he left Uhr Casdim. The Ramban is our third opinion. He holds that Avraham’s hometown was not Uhr Casdim, but Charan. Thus, Avraham was in his hometown (Charan) when HaShem commanded him to leave there
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Torah Portion -
LechLecha
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Written by D Fine
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When the time comes for Avraham to separate from Lot, Avraham poses the following deal to Lot: 'the entire land is in front of you - if you go left I'll go right, and if you go right I'll go left' (13:9). The Netziv asks an interesting question here. Why does Avraham need to move here; let Lot go left/right and Avraham should stay where he is? Why do they both need to move in opposite directions in order to be apart? The Netziv answers that Avraham wanted to
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